Establishing a Rule / The Daily Office

A few weeks ago, Doug mentioned that we might start thinking about having a sacred space downtown (hopefully 4 Market Square) and when we moved there, establishing morning and evening prayer times (Hours or the Office). (I am blogging about this rather than Doug since initiating a post has been difficult with the Blogger software.) He also alluded to our developing our own personal Rules (specific daily times set apart for prayer, medication, practicing spiritual disciplines, etc.) and I would hope that he and others would comment on this. We were given a number of references, some more contemporary (Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, etc.) and others more classic (St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, etc.) , that help us establish and practice this rule / spiritual disciplines.

But in thinking about a downtown sacred space, Doug felt we might start thinking about what the morning and evening office might look like. After a few years of doing it on Tuesday mornings, he had a few thoughts / questions -

1. "The Morning and Evening office from the Book of Common Prayer is too much for most people. I think we need to simplify it or find a simpler model. Patrick and Chris Woodhull have introduced us to the online resource www.sacredspace.ie. I’ve recently been using the online office from the Northumbria Community. You might dig around and look for formats that you like.
2. "What do you envision the time being like? Who do you see attending? Who do you see leading it? My first thought is that it needs to be pretty accessible for folks with varying levels of spiritual maturity, it would be nice if some folks who aren’t particularly mature Christians found themselves dropping by at the end of the day. How might healing fit in? Prayer for the city?"

As we continue to develop our own rule, perhaps we can consider the Office / Hours when our body has a space downtown.